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In this colour photograph commuters walk around the Bishopsgate entrance to Liverpool Street Station. The station was built in Victorian Gothic style with two brick towers on either side of the entrance.

Goodbye Liverpool Street

Written by Sheldrake Editor on . Posted in News.

One of London’s most prominent landmarks, Liverpool Street Station, is about to be destroyed by the very railway that promised to uphold its listed buildings heritage. Network Rail is seeking planning consent to demolish large parts of the station, seen here in a photograph by John McAslan & Partners.

On Tuesday 10th February Network Rail will seek planning approval from the City of London Corporation for a development that will obliterate the very essence of Liverpool Street Station. If they get their way, they will demolish the concourse and entrance buildings and build a tower block over the train shed, overshadowing the station hotel, the historic Bishopsgate conservation zone and the view of St Paul’s Cathedral.

In this visualization of the plans for the redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station, concrete pillars frame the station entrance and 19 floors of office building rise above the train shed.
After Network Rail’s redevelopment, Liverpool Street Station will have largely disappeared beneath a 19-storey tower block. Photo courtesy Acme UK Ltd.

Liverpool Station is listed Grade II and the station hotel Grade II*. Under planning laws, such national landmarks should never be compromised, and their survival should be prioritized over any development proposal.

Listed Buildings Heritage

Would you accept a proposal to build a tower block over St Paul’s Cathedral or the Tower of London, the other two major listed buildings in the City of London? Liverpool Street Station falls into the same category, argues Griff Rhys Jones, President of The Victorian Society. If you accept that claim, and we do, then why should Liverpool Street be treated with any less respect?

If Network Rail’s plan were to go ahead, it would be equivalent on the scale of architectural barbarism to the demolition of Pennsylvania Station, New York. Liverpool Street Station’s historic importance as the place that welcomed child refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied countries with the Kindertransport would be diminished.

To read an argument against Network Rail’s retrograde proposal and hear stories of other landmark stations that nearly met the guillotine, turn to Architecture for Humans.

You can find summaries of the development proposals at The Victorian Society and Save Britain’s Heritage. See also coverage in Architects’ Journal and the BBC.

They Voted for a Shiny New Office Building

In this colour photograph taken from the back of the Livery Hall, a packed audience listens and watches slides on a flat screen as the City of London Corporation presents the case for redeveloping Liverpool Street Station.
Every seat is taken in the Livery Hall as the City of London Corporation presents the case for redeveloping Liverpool Street Station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of a two-and-a-half-hour hearing yesterday, the Chairman of the City of London Corporation Planning and Transportation Committee, Tom Sleigh, said that Liverpool Street was a dreadful station. He understood the problems posed by tall buildings, the damage another one would do to the local conservation area, to the listed buildings and to landlord/tenant relationships. He recognized the concerns raised in the many objections.

But, he declared, ‘stasis kills cities’.

So, he put the application to a vote. On a show of hands, the members of the committee voted 19 in favour and three against, with no abstentions.

The decision will now go for approval to the Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

To read how the City of London Corporation think they can turn Liverpool Street Station into ‘a modern temple to transport’, click here. You can follow the entire meeting on YouTube. 

To see what the Liverpool Street Station Campaign has to say about this ‘sad day for the City of London’, and donate to their fundraiser, read Liverpool Street Station Campaign statement following City of London’s decision to grant planning permission to Network Rail.

And here is a short BBC report.